Pune volunteers are mapping riverside trees one weekend at a time

Volunteers in Pune are building a tree-by-tree record of the Mula and Mutha riverbanks, one Saturday at a time. Mongabay reported on October 30, 2026, that Pune River Revival started a more systematic map in 2024 after earlier notes proved too thin. The tool is iNaturalist. People photograph a tree, estimate the height, tape the trunk, and file the point on a project map.

Raghunandan Patil, a volunteer, said the weekend work began as a way to know what was still standing along the rivers. It has also been used when neighbors ask for a count. He told Mongabay that citizen mappers documented more than 500 trees along Ganeshkhind Road in a month after 529 trees there were cut, and that those notes listed 53 species, including banyan, Chinese banyan, weeping fig, and yellow flame tree. On the Saturday Mongabay joined, seven people worked a park at Madhavrao Scindia Garden. Ananya Gandhi, 24, who has mapped the rivers for two years, logged a mature jackfruit.

The group has also documented Ram-Mula Devrai, a sacred grove at the meeting of the Ram and Mula. Official reports cited by Mongabay put about 1,000 heritage trees there, at least 450 plant and animal species, and 160 bird species, including the Bengal monitor and the checkered keelback. Patil said walks, insect outings, and a tree-painting day were offered so the grove could stay a public place without being cleared. Ashok D. Ghorpade, the city's joint municipal commissioner and chief garden superintendent, said the municipal census runs every five years under a 1975 state law, with geo-tagging. He said citizen records can be added if the city's contractor verifies them. Mongabay's account is that offer and those counts. It does not say the riverfront project has been redrawn.